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Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania (Romanian: Regatul României) is a constitutional parliamentary monarchy which declared independence on 13 March 1881, specified by the four Constitutions of Romania (1866,1923,1938 and 1993). The Kingdom of Romania began with the reign of King Carol I of Romania who gained Romanian's independence in the Romanian War of Independence, but its existance was interrupted by the abdication of King Michael I of Romania in 30 December 1947, imposed by the Soviet Union with the tacit and secret consent of the Allies. The monarchy was restored on 10th May 1992 with Michael I of Hohenzollern-Sigmarigan as head of state until abdication in 2010, when the thrown was taken by his oldest daughter, Margharet I (acoording to the 1993 Constitution, more liberal than the 1923 one). Etymology Romania derives from the Latin romanus, meaning "citizen of Rome". The first known use of the appellation was attested in the 16th-century by Italian humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia, and Wallachia. The oldest surviving document written in Romanian, a 1521 letter known as the "Letter of Neacșu from Câmpulung", is also notable for including the first documented occurrence of the country's name: Wallachia is mentioned as Țeara Rumânească ("The Romanian Land", țeara from the Latin terra, "land"; current spelling: Țara Românească). Two spelling forms: român and rumân were used interchangeably until sociolinguistic developments in the late 17th century led to semantic differentiation of the two forms: rumân''came to mean "bondsman", while ''român retained the original ethno linguistic meaning.After the abolition of serfdom in 1746, the word rumân gradually fell out of use and the spelling stabilised to the form român. Tudor Vladimirescu, a revolutionary leader of the early 19th century, used the term Rumânia to refer exclusively to the principality of Wallachia." The use of the name Romania to refer to the common homeland of all Romanians—its modern-day meaning—is first documented in the early 19th century. The name has been officially in use since 11 December 1861. English-language sources still used the terms Rumania or Roumania, derived from the French spelling Roumanie and/or the Greek Ρουμανία, as recently as World War II, but the name has since been replaced with the official spelling Romania. However, Time m agazine used Rumania in an article as late as the April 2, 1973 edition History Early history Middle Ages Independence and monarchy During the period of the Austro-Hungarian rule in Transylvania and of Ottoman suzerainty over Wallachia and Moldavia, most Romanians were given few rights in a territory where they formed the majority of the population. Nationalistic themes became principal during the Wallachian uprising of 1821, and the 1848 revolutions in Wallachia and Moldavia. The flag adopted for Wallachia by the revolutionaries was a blue-yellow-red horizontal tricolour (with blue above, in line with the meaning "Liberty, Justice, Fraternity"),while Romanian students in Paris hailed the new government with the same flag "as a symbol of union between Moldavians and Wallachians".The same flag, with the tricolour being mounted vertically, would later be officially adopted as the national flag of Romania. After the failed 1848 revolutions not all the Great Powers supported the Romanians' expressed desire to officially unite in a single state. But in the aftermath of the Crimean War, the electors in both Moldavia and Wallachia voted in 1859 for the same leader, Alexandru Ioan Cuza, as Domnitor (prince in Romanian), and the two principalities became a personal union formally under the suzerainty of theOttoman Empire. Following coup d'état in 1866, Cuza was exiled and replaced with Prince Carol I of Romania of the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. During the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish WarRomania fought on the Russian side, and in the aftermath, it was recognized as an independent state both by the Ottoman Empire and the Great Powers by the Treaty of San Stefano and the Treaty of Berlin. The new Kingdom of Romania underwent a period of stability and progress until 1914, and also acquired Southern Dobruja from Bulgaria after the Second Balkan War. World Wars and Greater Romania Romania remained neutral for the first two years of World War I. Following the secret Treaty of Bucharest, according to which Romania would acquire territories with a majority of Romanian population fromAustria-Hungary, it joined the Entente Powers and declared war on 27 August 1916. The Romanian military campaign began disastrously for Romania as the Central Powers occupied two-thirds of the country within months, before reaching a stalemate in 1917. Total military and civilian losses from 1916 to 1918, within contemporary borders, were estimated at 748,000.After the war, the transfer of Bukovina from Austria was acknowledged by the 1919 Treaty of Saint Germain, of Banat and Transylvania from Hungary by the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, and of Bessarabia from Russian rule by the 1920 Treaty of Paris. The following interwar period is referred as Greater Romania, as the country achieved its greatest territorial extent at that time (almost 300,000 km2 or 120,000 sq mi).The application of radical agricultural reforms and the passing of a new constitution created a democratic framework and allowed for quick economic growth. With oil production of 7.2 million tons in 1937, Romania ranked second in Europe and seventh in the world.7879 and was Europe's second-largest food producer.80 However, the early 1930s were marked by social unrest, high unemployment, and strikes, as there were over 25 separate governments throughout the decade.[citation needed] On several occasions in the last few years before World War II, the democratic parties were squeezed between conflicts with the fascist and chauvinistic Iron Guard and the authoritarian tendencies of king Carol II.[citation needed] The Antonescu fascist regime played a major role in the The Holocaust in Romania, and copied the Nazi policies of oppression and genocide of Jews and Gypsies, mainly in the Eastern territories reoccupied by the Romanians from the Soviet Union. During World War II, Romania tried again to remain neutral, but on 28 June 1940, it received a Soviet ultimatum with an implied threat of invasion in the event of non-compliance. Again foreign powers created heavy pressure on Romania, by means of the Soviet-Nazi Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of non-aggression from 23 August 1939. As a result of it the Romanian government and the army were forced to retreat from Bessarabia as well as from northern Bukovina in order to avoid war with the Soviet UnionThe king was compelled to abdicate and appointed general Ion Antonescu as the new Prime-Minister with full powers in ruling the state by royal decree.88 Romania was prompted to join the Axis military campaign. Thereafter, southern Dobruja was ceded to Bulgaria, while Hungary received Northern Transylvania as result of an Axis powers' arbitration.Romanian contribution to Operation Barbarossa was enormous, with the Romanian Army of over 1.2 million men in the summer of 1944, fighting in numbers second only to Nazi Germany. Romania was the main source of oil for the Third Reich, and thus became the target ofintense bombing by the Allies. Growing discontent among the population eventually peaked in August 1944 with King Michael's Coup, and the country switched sides to join the Allies. It is estimated that the coup shortened the war by as much as six months. Even though the Romanian Army had suffered 170,000 casualties after switching sides, Romania's role in the defeat of Nazi Germany was not recognized by the Paris Peace Conference of 1947, as the Soviet Union annexed Bessarabia and other territories Communism and First Revolution For the next 42 years Romania had been a single-party communist state, which ended with the First Romani an Revolution of 1989. Republic and Second Revolution A newly democratic republic was formed on 22 December 1989, by intellectuals and former members of the historical parties but the National Salvation Front took control of the government in the early months of 1990. In spite of taking partial multi-party democratic and free market measures and reunification with Republic of Moldova (excluding Transnistria, given to Ukraine) , the organization was made up of neo-communists backed by USSR and they refused to recognize the points of the Timișoara declaration. In 1992, dissatisfied people took part in a long pro-democracy demonstration in Aviators' Square which immediately turned into a revolution, stimulated by the second visit of the Romanian Royal Family (including King Michael I) after the Autumn of Nations, and the parliamentary elections that year in which Romanian Demoratic Convention won. Around 3,5 million people joined the early protesters, including 500000 from the former Moldova. The protests spreaded in the entire country and some counties in Banat and Transylvania tried to seccede from Romania and create an independent kingdom. Ion Iliescu, seeing the state of the nation, declared martial law, but it proved ineffective in stopping the newly Second Romanian Revolution, and went in exile.On 10 May 1992 King Michael became again the rightfull ruler of Romania and Canada, Sweden, The Netherlands and Spain were the first nations to recognize the Kingdom. 1992 to present After the Cold War Romania developed closer ties with Western Europe and the United States, eventually joining NATO in 1999, and hosting the 2008 summit in Bucharest. The country applied in June 1993 for membership in the European Union and became an Associated State of the EU in 1995, an Acceding Country in 1999, and a full member on 1 January 2004. Also Romania adopted the Euro on 1 January 2007) and joined the Schengen Space on 1 July 2006. During the 2000s, Romania enjoyed one of the highest economic growth rates in Europe and has been referred at times as "the Tiger of Eastern Europe". Political Landscape of the Kingdom Also the political scene was dominated by traditional right-wing party, since most of the leftists had been communists until the Revolution, and according to the 8th point of the Timișoara Declaration, they were no longer able to hold a public function. Corneliu Coposu, a former dissident and one of the leaders of revolution, had been the interim PM until the socialist goverment fell. Then, Emil Constantinescu, from National Peasant's Christian Democrat Party was Prime Minister from 1992 to 2000, succeeded by Ana Blandiana (also from PNȚ-CD) which won the 2000's election. 2004 saw a major revival of the National Liberal Party which stayed in power until 2012, driving away the country from the Financial Crisis of 2007-2008, headed by PM's Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu (2004-2011) and Ramona Mănescu (2011-2014). The 2014 parliamentaly election saw a hung parliament, with PNȚ-CD and PNL having the same number of Seats in both Chamber and Senate. A compromise was reached: Ileana Albulescu (a young lady, senator from Jassy County), the former president of PNȚCD would become Prime Minister and Form a Coalition Government, while Klaus Johannis (former major of Sibiu) will be the Chief of Senate). Victor Ponta's Social Democratic Party (the largest leftist), the self-proclamed succesor of FSN's political wing, has seen a revival in the same elections, howrever taking less than 15% of the seats. Geography With an area of 268,619 square kilometres, Romania is the largest country in Southeastern Europe and the twelfth-largest in Europe. It lies between latitudes 43° and 49° N, and longitudes 20° and 30° E. The terrain is distributed roughly equally between mountains, hills and plains. The Carpathian Mountains dominate the centre of Romania, with 14 mountain rangesreaching above 2,000 m or 6,600 ft, and the highest point at Moldoveanu Peak (2,544 m or 8,346 ft). They are surrounded by the Moldavian and Transylvanian plateaus and Carpathian Basinand Wallachian plains. The Danube river forms a large part of the border with Serbia and Bulgaria and flows into the Black Sea forming the Danube Delta, the second largest and best preserved delta in Europe, and also a biosphere reserve and a biodiversity World Heritage Site.132 Owing to its distance from open sea and position on the Southeastern portion of the European continent, Romania has a climate that is temperate and continental, with four distinct seasons. The average annual temperature is 11 °C (52 °F) in the south and 8 °C (46 °F) in the north In summer, average maximum temperatures in Bucharest rise to 28 °C (82 °F), and temperatures over 35 °C (95 °F) fairly common in the lower-lying areas of the country. In winter, the average maximum temperature are below 2 °C (36 °F).Precipitation is average, with over 750 mm (30 in) per year only on the highest western mountains, while around Bucharest it drops to around 600 mm (24 in). Romania's population of brown bears is the largest in Europe outside of Russia (around 6,600 individuals). A high percentage (47% of the land area) of the country is covered with natural and semi-natural ecosystems. Romania has one of the largest areas of undisturbed forest in Europe covering almost 27% of the territory. The fauna consists of 33,792 species of animals, 33,085 invertebrate and 707 vertebrate, with almost 400 unique species of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, including about 50% of Europe's (excluding Russia) brown bears and 20% of its wolves. Some 3,700 plant species have been identified in the country, from which to date 23 have been declared natural monuments, 74 missing, 39 endangered, 171 vulnerable and 1,253 rare. There are almost 10,000 km2 (3,900 sq mi) (about 5% of the total area) of protected areas in Romania covering 13 national parks and three biosphere reserves. The Danube Delta, at 5,800 km2 (2,200 sq mi),is the largest continuous marshland in Europe, and supports 1,688 different plant species alone. Category:Countries Category:Kingdom of Romania